Wednesday, 30 October 2013

There are several temples in Bangalore dedicated to
Someshwara and the most famous of them all is the one in Halasuru or Ulsoor.
The SomeshwaraTemple
at Ulsoor is one of the most magnificent temples in Bangalore and though its origin is shrouded
in mystery, we know that the Cholas, Kempe Gowda and other dynasties have
contributed to its construction.

Interestingly, there is
another temple dedicated to Someshwara and this too was built by the Cholas.
The Cholas had defeated the Gangas and they overran the Ganga provinces,
including Bangalore.
They built several temples, including those dedicated to Someshwara.

Since the Cholas were
followers of Shaivism, they built temples for Shiva not in their country-Thanjavur
and surrounding areas-but also in the lands they conquered. Thus, when they set
foot on Bangalore,
they ensured that the area had temples dedicated to Someshwara or Shiva.

If the SomeshwaraTemple
in Halasoor is well known, the one at Agara in Sarjapur is not all that popular
though it dates back to more than a thousand years.

This is the temple of Someshwara Swamy
and it is located at Agara on the Sarjapura
Main Road. This structure has a recorded history
dating back to around 850 BC and that would make it 1200 years old.

As the name Someshwara Swamy
itself suggests, the temple is dedicated to Shiva or Eshwara. Both the
temple and the deity is dated to the Chola period. Unlike other temples
dedicated to Someshwara, the idols here self manifested. This means that the
idols were not man made or sculpted by men. The idols appeared on the earth on
their own.

Such idols are called
Swayambhu or self manifested. Here, the idols of Shiva and his son, Ganapathi, are
believed to be Swayambhu or self manifested. Hence, this temple is considered
to very holy.

But the most unique fact of
the temple is that when the priest performs abhisheka to the Someshwara Swamy
idol in the morning, the ghee used transforms into butter. Such a phenomenon has
never been reported in any temple in Bangalore and
the only such similar event can be seen at the ShivaTemple
in Shiva Gange in Tumkur district.

There is no scientific explanation
on how ghee transforms itself into butter only during the morning abhisheka or
pouring of water and other ingredients on the idol in the morning to sanctify
the idol.

The temple can be entered from
the main gateway, which is rather barrow. Such entrances were common in ancient
ages and they were built to ensure that people who came bent down in submission
to the God.

There is a symbol of the
Chola dynasty within the temple. The Vimana of the temple has sculptures of
avatars of Shiva. The number “five” is sacred to Shiva. One of his most
important mantras has five syllables (namah śivāya). Shiva's body is said to consist of five mantras,
called the pañcabrahmans. The
forms of God, each of these have their own names and distinct iconography: such
as Sadyojata, Vanadeva, Aghora, Tatpurusha and Isana. All these five forms are
represented on the Vimana Gopura of the temple.

The vehicle of Shiva is Nandi
and she is placed in front of Shiva’s idol. A temple dedicated to Goddess
Parvathi has been constructed next to this temple. The temple compound houses
smaller temples to Ayyappa and Shani who
is one of the Navagraha deity.

The family of Gundappa Dixit
have been taking care of the temple for more than 400 years. The temple draws
huge crowds during Shivaratri and Karthika Maasa when queues stretch for miles.

The temple is surrounded by a
garden and since it is on the main road, it is easy to locate. It is oasis of
calm in the midst of maddening crowd. If you ever get struck in traffic jam at
Agara or at Sarjapur road, park your car and spent some time in this holy place.

The idols is believed to help
people who pray for succor from illness, marital or medical problems. The
priests of the Someshwara Swamy temple say that couples who have not had
children have come and prayed here and many among them have come back with
their children. Hence, this temple is popular with couples for offering prayers to beget a child.

Tuesday, 29 October 2013

Marathalli or Marathahalli is
one of the many localities in Bangalore.
A majority of the people and even residents of Marathalli say the name of their
locality is from Maruti or Hanuman.

They say that there was a temple of Maruti in the locality and, hence, the
name. Marathahalli is derived from the Sanskrit word “Maruti” meaning Lord
Hanuman and Halli meaning village in
Kannada. Other people believe that a fighter aircraft called “Marut” crash landed
at the place. Therefore, the area came to be called Marathalli.

Very few people know that
Marathalli is one of the handful of places in and around the City that predate Bangalore or Bendakalooru.
There is no doubt that several centuries ago, this was a small village and the residents depended
on forestry, agriculture and they also reared cattle and were into poultry
farming.

However, agriculture was thee
main source of profession of the residents of Marathalli.

Another legend about this
place is that it was here that the Marathas settled down and this was during
the reign of Tipu Sultan, the ruler of Mysore.
With scores of Maratha families living here, it came to be called Maratha Halli
which later came to be known as Marathalli.

A few other residents say
Marathalli is named after St. Martha’s Hospital.

Whatever its origin, we now
know that Marathalli is one of the oldest places in and around Bangalore. Historians and
archaeologists say that the first mention of Marathalli as a settlement is in a
written record belonging to the Vijayanagar Dynasty in 1508. However, there is
proof to say that this locality existed even in the middle ages.

The Someshwara Temple of
Marathalli and an inscription on an Ashwatha Katte date the inhabitation of
Marathalli to the eleventh century. This makes Marathalli much older than Bangalore or other towns
in and around the Garden City.

A few decades ago, the
Someshwara temple was the centre of the Marathalli village. But today, it
stands away from the centre point of the locality. Historians date the SomeshwaraTemple to the Cholas and this was built
sometime during the eleventh century.

The temple of Someshwara
is a typical Chola structure. It is really interesting to note that it was from
the time of the Cholas that the penchant for constructing Someshwara temples
began and almost all such temples are in and around Bangalore.

(Another SomeshwaraTemple
of the Cholas is in Ulsoor or Halasuru but this was substantially repaired and
renovated by Kempe Gowda).

The SomeshwaraTemple at Marathalli is as old as the SomeshwaraTemple at Agara in Sarjapur. Thus, we
find many Someshwara Temples of the Chola era in Bangalore.

Coming back to Marathalli, historians
discovered an old inscription on the Aswathakatte or platform of a banyan tree.

The inscription belonged to
the Vijayanagara kingdom and it is dated 1508. It mentions the reign of Viranarasimha
Raya or Viranarasimha the third of Vijayanagara kingdom in 1508.

The inscription also mentions
that Brahma, Saptarishis, Harihara and the god of Varanasi were among the witnesses of
Viranarasimha's rule in the Vijayanagara kingdom.

Historians have mot been able
to assign a reason for the inscription. The inscription only records the reign
of a Tuluva King of Vijayanagar.

Viranarasimha was the brother
of Krishnadeva Raya (1509-1529) and he followed the Vijayanagar Emperor, Narasa
Nayaka, to the throne. Viranarasimha reigned for four years, between 1505 and
1509. Soon after he ascended the throne, he faced rebellion from several
quarters, including the Ummattur chiefs.

According to folklore, Viranarasimha
wanted his minister, Saluva Thimmarasu, to pluck the eyes of Krishna Deva Raya
so that his con could ascend the Vijayanagar throne.

We may surmise that
Viranarasimha had the inscription put up as he wanted to exert his authority. Whatever
the reason, we now know that Marathalli was part of the Vijayanagar kingdom.

The Vijayanagar inscription
is in Telugu and this shows us that Kannada perhaps was not the mother tongue
or language here, at least till six centuries ago.

The inscription testifies to
the fact that Telugu was the language of the Vijayanagar court along with
Kannada.

Today, the SomeshwaraTemple
and the Telugu inscription are the only relics of yore. Today, the temple has
been renovated and it bears little resemblance t the ancient structure that it
was. As far as Marathalli goes, it is an important locality of Bangalore and even its residents
have forgotten the local history of the area, caught up as they are in the
throes of modernization and the real estate
boom.

Marathalli is home to several
IT and BT companies and it is also the place where several companies known for branded
apparels and furniture shops have their establishments.

It is the emerging IT and
real estate hub of Bangalore.
Once known as a small village coming in Anekal taluk, it was a forgotten
outpost of history till a decade ago.

Today, this village boasts of
hosting several IT majors and it has been seeing a booming real estate market,
all thanks to the innumerable IT and BT companies that dot the place.

Located south east of Bangalore, it is now
being spoken of as the place where WIPRO is housing its world class university
and Infosys is setting up a special economic zone (SEZ).

The SEZ and university makes good
sense as this area is well connected to other IT hotspots such as Whitefield, ElectronicCity, Bommanahalli, Bommasandra,
Marathahalli, Silk Board Junction, Anekal, Koramangala, Madiwala and Outer Ring
Road.

This is Sarjapur, which was
once a sleepy village. It is emerging as a fast growing IT hub and the Aziz
Premji Foundation plans to acquire 50 acres here to set up a university.
Similarly, Infosys has purchased 202 acres to set up a SEZ exclusively for IT.

Though Sarjapur is seeing
a boom now, very few know that it was once a jagir granted by the Mughals and
that this Jagirship continued for more than
a century.

Sarjapur till 1873 was also the
headquarters of the taluk by the same name. Sarjapur, till the beginning of the
21st century, was mostly rural in character and it was a place where a fair or
jatre was held every Sunday.

The fair was popular and
people from Sarjapur and surrounding villages and even Anekal came here to buy
and sell goods. The fair gave an opportunity to local farmers and growers to display
and sell their commodities and small time traders to sell their goods.

The fair disappeared once
Sarjapur was swallowed by in the throes of urbanisation. However, the conduct
of the fair can be gauged if one were to visit the Madivala fair which is held
even today.

Coming back to Sarjapur, it was a small trading centre and its importance
lay in the fact that it bordered Bangalore
on one side eighteen villages on the other three sides.

Sarjapur had access to all
these eighteens villages and obviously it was the biggest of them all in
population.

Sarjapur was known for the
manufacture of cotton, clothes, carpets and tapes. Muslins of the finest quality
were woven here and sold in Bangalore
and other places. The Sarjapur Muslin was well-known in and around Bangalore and it was in
great demand.

The Sarjapur products were
sold in the petes of Bangalore
and the Muslin competed with similar products from Doddaballapur. If
Doddaballapur was known for sarees, Sarjapur was known for its clothes and
cotton. Today, neither are manufactured in Sarjapur.

Sarjapur was a jagir along
with 18 other surrounding villages. The first mention of the jagir of Sarjapur goes
back to the time of the Mughals.

The Mughals invaded Bangalore and took over the fort of Bangalore under the Mughal Emperor,
Aurangzeb, sometime in 1686. The Mughal General, Khasim Khan, wrested Bangalore and its surroundings from the Marathas and in
1689 leased Bangalore
to the Wodeyars of Mysore.

In the meantime, the Mughals appear
to have leased Sarjapur as a jagir. Their main condition was that the jagirdar
train and station troops to help the Mughal Emperor in tines of war. This condition
appears statesmanlike as the Mughals were constantly battling the Marathas all over
the Deccan (South India).

The Mughals had also brought
an end to the Adil Shahis of Bijapur in 1686 and the Qutb Shahs of Golconda in
1689. With both these Muslim Kingdoms annexed by the Mughals, the Marathas came
in direct conflict with the Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb.

Emperor Aurangzeb realised that
the Hindu kingdom of Wodeyars was just a little more than a hundred kilometers
from Bangalore.
His General, Kasim Khan, gave away Bangalore
to the Wodeyars but kept Sira and Sarjapur as Mughal provinces. While Sira,
near Tumkur, became a regular Mughal province, Sarjapur was given as a Jagir.
However, both Sira and Sarjapur were part of the Mughal province in the south.

The jagir of Sira and also
Sarjapur was confirmed b successive rulers. While Sira finally fell to Hyder
Ali, he allowed the jagir of Sarjapur to continue. This even as Hyder Ali took Bangalore from the
Marathas.

B.L. Rice, in his gazetteer, speaks
of having seen the documents confirming and reconfirming the Sarjapur Jagir.

The first grant is in Persian
and it is by Dilawar Khan, the Mughal Subedar of Sira province. The grant is in
the name of the Mughal Emperor and the Mughal Emperor is called as Alamgir
Padshah i Ghazi.

Then comes the grant of the
jagir by Madhava Rao, a minister of the Peshwas of Pune. This grant is in Marathi. This document
bears the inscription, Raja Ram Narapati, Harsha Nishan Madhav Rao Ballal
Pradhan.

The next confirmation of the
grant is by Hyder Ali. This paper has the signature of Hyder Ali and it is also
in Marathi. It is signed as Fatte Haider. Then comes the grant by Lord
Cornwallis and it is sealed with the Persian word Salar E Inglistan. It is
initialed at the back as “GFC”.

Then comes the grant by
Captain Cherry and this too is in Persian. It says the seal is by George
Fredrick Cherry, Khayim Jang, fidvi E Kampani Angresi Bahadur.

The last grant of the jagir
is by Captain Reed in 1791 and it is in Persian. The seal says Alexander Reed Bahadur.
The grants were finally cancelled by Dewan Purnaiah when he found that the Jagardir
of Sarjapur wanted to sell the jagir.

Purnaiah bought out the
Jahagirdar, After that there was no jagir or Jahagirdar. The Sarjapur province
was merged with the MysoreKingdom and it soon lost
all its former glory and by the turn of the century it was just a small
village.

Today, Sarjapur is on another
incline. Modernisation and development is going hand in hand and the area is
seeing a boom in the real estate sector. IT and BT companies are setting shop
in Sarjapur. Connectivity to and from Sarjapur has improved by leaps and bounds.
Alas, the march of modernity has ensured that all relics of the past, barring a
few temples, have vanished without a trace. This is the price one has to pay
for growing urbanization and development.

Friday, 25 October 2013

There are many Anjaneya temples
in Bangalore and among the most famous is the GaliAnnaneyaTemple and the Hanuman
temple in Mahalakshmi Layout.

The Hanuman temple at
Ragigudda, the KoteAnjaneyaTemple
and the MintoKannuAspatreTemple are the other famous
temples. Infact, Bangalore
has several Vyasa Prathistha Hanuman temples.

The Vyasa Prathistha Hanuman
temples were consecrated by the great Madhwa saint, Vyasa Raja or Vyasa
Theertha and there are more than two dozen of them in and around Bangalore, including the GaliAnjaneyaTemple on Mysore Road.

Many miracles are ascribed to
these temples but one of the most unique temple is that of Hanuman at
Banaswadi.

Banaswadi is one of the
well-known localities of Bangalore
and initially it was known as the place near the ITC cigarette factory.
Banaswadi today is a bustling locality and it has several temples and other religious
places of worship bit none as famous as the Hanuman temple.

The SriAnjaneyaSwamyTemple
attracts scores of devotees every day and people from other localities too
throng to the temple. A majority of the people are aware of the grand Navaratri
celebrations that are held in the temple.
These celebrations see all the deities in the temple being decorated with
flowers and ornaments. The Navaratri celebrations ked up decked up in flowers
during the time of Navaratri festival. The celebrations are held for all the
nine days of Dassara or Navaratri. . However, a little known fact of this
temple is that the Anjaneya idol sheds tears on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti
every December. The tears flow from the eyes on that day and there is no
particular time or period when this strange phenomenon occurs.

The tears have continued to
flow over the years and this is perhaps the most unique feature of this temple.
Infact, no other Hanuman temple has reported such a phenomenon.
The temple is believed to be more than 150 years old and the idol of Hanuman or
Anjaneya has been sculpted at Saligrama, a small town between Udupi and Kundapura.

Apart from the idol of
Hanuman, the temple has a few other deities too such as that of Kodandarama and
Basaveshwara. The temple is better known as the Hanuman temple of Dodda Banaswadi.
It comes under the Muzrai Department and it is among the richest in Bangalore.

Incidentally, Banaswadi was a
village till two decades ago. The boom in IT and BT and the growing urbanisation
of the city led to the disappearance of this village and in its place we have a
busy locality.

The village that existed here
was called Dodda Banaswadi and Chikka Banaswadi. Though these names survive,
the villages have vanished.

Today the Ring Road borders
Banaswadi on one side. It has a railway
station called Banaswadi railway station. It is flanked by HRBR Layout and Kalyan
Nagar.

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

A whistle blower, he exposed
the rot and corruption of the bureaucracy that had set in in the Revenue
Department in British India. He published a
booklet on the corruption but he did not lend his name to its authorship.
Instead, he called it a book by a native Indian officer.

A few years later he came to
be appointed the Dewan of the MysoreKingdom. He went about
his job with ferocity and took several steps to root out corruption. He also
introduced music in schools.

He worked for the Imam
Commission which had been set up by the British. Subsequently, he was appointed
to go into the working of the Indian Railways.

As Dewan of Mysore, he
instituted the first Representative Assembly in India.

Unfortunately, he fell very
sick and passed away just a few years after he had assumed the Dewanship. But
his name is immortalised even today and he is ranked among the ablest
administrators of his times.

He had a deep and abiding
passion for chess. His name is forever on the lips of Mysoreans as the Town
Hall in the RoyalCity is named after him.
He is Dewan C.V. Rungacharlu.

Born in 1831, he lived a
little more than 50 years. Yet, he has left behind a rich legacy of
administrative work, which are worth implementing even today.

Rungacharlu was born in an
Iyengar family in Chingleput district in the then Madras
Presidency. He was a Vadagalai Iyengar. His father, C.
Raghavachariar, was a clerk in the office of the Collectorate at Chingleput.

His parents were poor and he
could attend school only after V. Raghavachariar, the first Indian magistrate
in Madras,
promised to support him financially.

He joined Government service as
a Huzur deputy accountant in the office of the Collector of Madras
when he was 19 years. It was 1850 then.

Soon after his conformation, he
was transferred to the Chingleput Collectorate. He was subsequently promoted to
Head Writer and posted in Salem.
It was here that young Rungacharlu performed his task as a Head Writer with
distinction. He was disgusted with the corruption in the Revenue Department and
in 1856 he published two pamphlets – “Bribery and Corruption in the Revenue
Department” and “Mirasi Rights in the Chingleput and Tanjore Districts”.

He was then appointed
Tahsildar of Saidapet and then as Head Sheristadar of Nellore. In 1859,
he was appointed Special Assistant to G. N. Taylor, President of the Imam
Commission. When the term of the Imam Commission ended, Rungacharlu was
appointed to the inquire into the working of the Indian Railways. Rungacharlu was
subsequently appointed Commissioner of the Madras Railway Company. He was working
as a Treasury Deputy Collector at Calicut in
1868, when he was invited to join the Mysore
civil service.

He then assisted British
official Major Elliot in reorganization of the MysorePalace
establishment in 1868. He was assistant to the guardian of Chamaraja Wodiyar
before the Wodeyar ascended the throne in 1881.

Rungacharlu was appointed the
Dewan the day when Chamaraja Wodeyar asssumed charge to rule the MysoreState.

He served as Dewan from 1881
to 1883. He was instrumental in setting up the Representative Assembly. He also
introduced music as one of the subjects in schools.

When he became Dewan in March
1881, Mysore
was in throes of financial crisis which
had adversely impacted the agricultural and industrial sector. The State was
devastated by the famine of 1877 and it was faced with a debt of Rs. 8 lakhs.
He postponed for five years, the payment of Rs. 10.5 lakhs as subsidy to the
British.

He replaced British officers
with Indians. He also disbanded Hassan and Chitradurga districts and downgraded
nine taluks into Deputy Amildar sections. The number of Munsiff Courts,
Sub-Courts and district jails were also reduced. These measures helped reduce the
expenses of the state. He also o lifted the ban of the sale of sandalwood and
sandalwood products, thus earning much needed revenue for the State.

With the revenue generated by
the sale of sandalwood, he helped develop the railway system for Mysore. He was also instrumental
in commissioning the railway line from Bangalore
to Tiptur.

He fell seriously ill at the
end of 1882. When the illness became critical, he resigned as Dewan. He came to Madras where he died on
January 20, 1883.

Mysore has honored him by constructing a Town Hall which it
has named as Dewan Rungacharlu Memorial Hall.

Friday, 18 October 2013

It was a rather difficult
period for Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. Tipu had succeeded his father,
Hyder Ali, and he was hemmed in by enemies on all sides.

The MysoreKingdom
that Tipu ruled was surrounded by the Peshwas, the Nizam of Hyderabad, the British
and several smaller palegars who were enemies of the Sultan.

The fighter that he was, Tipu
never once thought of entering into a peace treaty with his enemies. He was fiercely
anti-British and he did his best to oust them from South
India.

To this end, he tried to string
together an alliance against the English but failed in the endeavour as neither
the Peshwas nor the Nizam backed him. If the Nizam was afraid of the growing
power of Tipu, the Peshwas were embroiled in a bitter internal war and they had little time or thought of taking on
the English.

While Hyder Ali had
maintained the pretence of paying nominal
obscience to the Wodeyar, Tipu had thrown aside all these pretences and openly
taken over power. He had forced the Maharaja and his retinue to come from Mysore to Srirangapatna
where he kept them imprisoned in a palace. The only time the Maharaja was
allowed to meet the subjects was during Dasara.

Since Mumadi Krishnaraja
Wodeyar (1794-1868) was a child, his mother, Maharani Lakshmi Ammani, worked
desperately to protect the royal family from the gaze of Tipu. He also corresponded with the British
and urged them to overthrow Tipu.

Tipu thus had a hard time in
dealing with his enemies. He trusted only a few people and among them was a Madhwa
Brahmin. This Brahmin was later to become first Dewan of the Wodeyars after the death of Tipu Sultan.

Hailing from a village near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu,
he was regarded as the Chanakya of Karnataka.

He was respected by everybody
who came across him. A scholar and linguist, he was staunchly loyal to the
people he served be it Hyder Ali, Tipu or the Wodeyars.

He participated in many
military campaigns and he was a shrewd strategist. He defeated Wellesley in the Battle of Sultanpet in 1799
and this was just a month before the British overran Srirangapatna and killed Tipu
Sultan.

He was a multifaceted
personality with extraordinary administrative skills. He had a prodigious
memory and was a master of accounts. He was such an able hand that people
instinctly trusted him.

Born in 1746, he lost his
father at the age of eleven. However, this did not deter him and he took up job
as an accountant with a grocer to support his family. The grocer was impressed
with the skill of the young boy and he soon introduced him to his friend,
Annadana Shetty, who supplied groceries to the palace establishment of Hyder
Ali and also his Army.

Shetty introduced Purnaiah to
Hyder and soon Hyder realised that he had a rare gem at hand. He employed Purnaiah
who soon rose to become the head of Hyder’s Accounts Office.

Hyder was deeply impressed by
Purnaiah’s neat and beautiful handwriting and his compact accounting methods. A
master of several languages, Purnaiah was proficient in Kannada, Persian and
Sanskrit. He understood English but could not read and write it.

When Hyder Ali died, this an
kept his death a secret and sent for Tipu and crowned him the King of the MysoreKingdom.
No wonder, Tipu had deep and abiding respect to this man and he trusted him to
the last.

This man is none other than
Purnaiah, better known as Dewan Purnaiah. (1746 - 1812). His earlier name was Krishnacharya
Purniya and Tipu fondly called him Mir Miran Purniya.

A very little known fact about
Purnaiah is that he was an excellent diplomat. His skills of diplomacy was
renown and Hyder and Tipu often depended on it for resolving tricky affairs of
the State.

He deftly handled the affairs
of the State and he was tactful, sincere, honest and a man of his word.

One day, Tipu was
particularly worried over a matter of statecraft and after discussing it with his
council of ministers, he turned to Purnaiah.

Tipu discussed the subject with
Purnaiah and then told him that this matter could be sorted only through diplomacy
and not by might. He stressed on the importance of diplomacy and asked Purnaiah
to ensure that the issue was amicably resolved.

Purnaiah then discussed the
issue threadbare with Tipu who once again requested him to take to diplomacy.
Purnaiah then gently told Tipu that diplomacy could not help sort out the
issue.

When a puzzled Tipu asked
Purnaiah why, he replied, “I never lie and you will never tell the truth. So
how can this issue be resolved with diplomacy.”

Abashed by the reply, Tipu
quickly beat a hasty retreat into his private quarters. When news of this
reached Fatima Fakhr-ud-Nisa, she burst into uncontrollable laughter. She marveled
at the diplomatic manner in which Purnaiah had pointed out the Sultan’s faults.

She would recount this episode
several times and burst into laughter. As far as Tipu was concerned, he was never
out of step while dealing with Purnaiah.

Sunday, 6 October 2013

The Vijayadashami, which
signifies the end of the Navaratri, brings thousands of tourists and pilgrims
to Mysore, to
watch the Jamboo Savari.

If the Jumbo Savari or Dasara
procession culminates the end of the Navaratri, there is another ritual, which when
it ends signals the commencement of the procession.

This is the highly brutal
blood sport of Vajra Musti or Musti Kalaga. Once a highly popular spot of Kings
and emperors and the high and might of India, it has lost out to modern
sports and to softer forms of physical games like boxing and wrestling.

True, a boxer or wrestler of
even a martial art expert might take
umbrage at the forgoing sentence but what they should remember is that in Vajra
Musti, the spurting of first blood on the forehead of an opponent celebrates
the victor.

This is perhaps the most
dangerous sport of all and make no mistake, it is as dangerous today as it was
centuries ago. The combatants are known as Gettis and this sport today is
confined within the Main palace
of Mysore.

The Vajra Musti bouts are
arranged in the beautiful wrestling courtyard of the main palace. Specially
treated mud is prepared for the event and it is brought in lorries to the
venue. The scion of the Wodeyar dynasty, Srikantadutta Narasimharaja Wodeyar, inaugurates
the event.

After the Musti ends, he
heralds the Dasara procession.

Coming back to the Vajra Musti,
it is one of the most feared of all ancient arts of India. In Mysore, it is performed only on Vijayadashmi and
that too to keep the ancient tradition alive.

The sport involves wrestlers
or jattis hitting each other with clinched fists. Whosoever draws blood first
is declared the winner and the contest is called off.

Unfortunately, this is a
private event and it is generally not open to the public, except through
invitation or special permission. Almost all the participants are from the
Jetti community and they fight out more for prestige and tradition than for prize
money.

The sport today is confined
only to Mysore
but centuries ago, it was popular in the Vijayanagar Empire. The Vijayanagar
Emperors were patrons of this art forms and they patronized many Jettis. Krishna Deva Raya was himself a renowned
wrestler and he won many bouts.

Ranadheera Kanteerava Wodeyar
was also a famous wrestler of his times. He was also proficient in many forms
of martial arts. There are several accounts of
this Wodeyar King personally participating in Kusti during Dasara when
Srirangapatna was the capital of the MysoreKingdom.

Jattis of Mysore who played
the blood sport were patronized by the Wodeyars and given high positions of power and prestige. Senior Jettis were designated
as Rajagurus and their services were commissioned for training princes and
kings in warfare and strategy.

Since Jettis had knowledge
about anatomy and were expert wrestlers,
they were given importance in the Mysore
court and they formed an integral part of the Maharaja’s inner circle.

The Jettis were not Kannadigas
and a majority of them hail from Delmal in Gujarat.
They are believed to have migrated to south during the 11th century. The first mention of
the Jetti is in Hoysala records.

Interestingly, both Hyder Ali
and Tiu Sultan were patrons of Vajra Musti. After the storming of Srirangapatna
in 1799, Vajra Musti lost its hue in Srirangapatna and Mysore took its place as the centre of Vajra
Musti.

The Jettis were supposed to
have taught Balarama, the brother of Krishna, the
art of wrestling. Balarama son became one of the greatest wrestlers of his
times.

Today, the blood sport is
almost dead and gone but for the annual Dasara event. The sport can easily
survive and even become popular provided our Government and the powers that be
took keen interest in preserving and nurturing a rich slice of our heritage.

The Dasara is the Nada Habba
of Karnataka and the best place to catch all the action is Mysore, the city of palace and home to the
Royal house of the Wodeyars.

Mysore is all decked up for the Dasara and the magnificent
Dasara procession is just a few days away. The procession on Vijayadashami,
marks the culmination of Navaratri and it has generally been held in the
afternoon.

If the highlight of the first
day of Navaratri is the Wodeyar scion, Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wodeyar,
ascending the throne, the procession with a caparisoned elephant carrying the
golden howdah is the main event of the last day.

Thus, the magnificent Golden
throne and the Golden howdah have always remained an integral part of the
Dasara celebrations of Mysore.

While the howdah is a
permanent structure, the throne is not.

The throne has to be
reassembled just before the start of Navaratri and this year it was reassembled
in a two-hour exercise on October 5.

It was brought out from the strongroom
of the Main palace in Mysore
on Sunday under the watchful eyes of Pramoda Devi, wife of Srikantadatta
Wodeyar, his aides and officials of the
Mysore Palace Board.

The throne was assembled by twenty
five villagers from Gejjagalli near Mysore.

Every Dasara, villagers of
Gejjahalli and two others villages-Sakahalli and Kesare-come to the Mysore palace and
volunteer their services to the Royal family during the duration of
Dasara. According to palace records,
these villagers have been helping the royal family conduct the Dasara ever
since the capital was shifted from Srirangapatna to Mysore in 1799 after the fall of Tipu Sultan.

Even today, 30 families of
Gejjagalli, Sakahalli and Kesare form a core group which helps the royal family
discharge numerous duties and rituals during the Dasara.

These villagers are nor
regular employees of the palace. They set aside all their personal work during
Dasara and volunteer theoir services. A group of villagers from Gejjahalli help
in reassembling the golden throne.

There has been no incident of
theft ever since they offered their services to the royal family from 1799. No
wonder, their services are sought out even today. The royal family and the
Palace board provides the volunteers with traditional dresses and each of them
is assigned duties such as bringing out the royal elephant, royal horse, royal
cow, royal camel, carrying the royal insignia, royal standard, torch and
forming part of the Khasa or private durbar. Some call out the achievements of
the royal family during the darbar and act as standard proclaimers or royal
criers.

With the villagers displaying
their loyalty through centuries, they have been given the important task of
assembling the throne at the auspicious time. They have also served food to the
royal guests and assisted the Wodeyars during royal burials too.

These volunteers, about 20 of
them, commenced the fixing the throne at the auspicious time in the presence of
Pramoda Devi, other members of the royal family and palace authorities. Once the golden lion is
fixed on the throne at an auspicious time, the Yuvaraja takes the ceremonial
oil bath of Yenne Shastra as Kannadigas call it.

The assembling of the throne
includes fixing the main seat known as Kurmasana, the umbrella over it and the
series of steps leading to the seat. This task was completed as priests
performed special rituals.

The rituals included Navagraha
and ganapati homas by more than 12 palace priests. Soon after, a curtain
was drawn to mask the throne till the Yuvaraja ascended the throne.

The throne is used for
conducting the khasa durbar during the Navaratri period.

The throne will be on display
for the public from October 5 to October 13 after which it will be dismantled
and returned to the strongroom.

The throne itself is a
subject of several myths and legends. Even its origin is shrouded in mystery. While
many historians believe that it was a gift by the Mughals-some say Aurangzeb in
1700- to the reigning Wodeyar, Chikadevaraja, others say it was gifted to Raja
Wodeyar in 1610 by either Srirangaraya, the Viceroy of Srirangapatna or
Venkata, the Vijayanagar Emperor.

Even Vikram Sampath, the
author of an excellent book on Mysore, called Royal
Splendors of Mysore, acknowledges the mystery of its origin.

Popular legend ascribes the
throne to the Pandavas and later to the legendary Vikramaditya and Bhoja Raja.
The throne was subsequently buried in Penugonda, now in Andhra Pradesh. The
then Rajguru of Vijayanagar, Vidvaranya,
helped Harihara, the founder of the Vijayanagar along with his brother
Bukkaraya, to retrieve it.

Kampiliraya of Kampli got the
throne from Hastinapur and he buried it in Penugonda when Muhammad Bin Tughlaq
invaded the Deccan in 1327. Kampiliraya died
fighting the Tughlaq. His Kingdom then included Andhra Pradesh, Chitradurga,
Shimoga, Raichur, Bellary,
Hubli-Dharwad.

The throne remained hidden
underground till 1338.

The golden throne is a
fabulous structure and it features a tortoise seat, a staircase with seven
steps, a golden umbrella with creepers, an elephant, a horse and soldiers and
is emblazoned with an ivory plaque, precious stones and jewels. The holy
trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are carved
out of gold.

The throne was earlier used
during the coronation of Wodeyar kings. The throne was found in a store room
when the British stormed Srirangapatna on May 4, 1799. It was subsequently
returned to the Wodeyars who have since been its guardians.

The last time people saw an
Emperor or Maharaja (Srikantadatta Narasimharaja is a Yuvaraja and not a
Maharaja.) holding darbar and sitting on the royal throne or Ratna Simhasana
was Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar in 1969.

The throne, its legend and
other details are described in detail in the Sanskrit book, Devathanama
Kusumamanjari written in 1859 by Mummadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the King of
Mysore.

By the way, one of the best
description of the Mysore Dasara, including the Woedyar Emperor ascending the
throne and the Jamboo Savari on Vijayadashami is by Govinda Vaidya in 1648. He
was a court poet of Ranadheera Kantirava and he has left us a detailed account
of Navaratri and Dasara. The first pictorial representation of Dasara is also
during this period.

However, an earlier
description of Navaratri and Dasara in Mysore
and surrounding areas of south Karnataka is found in the book, Bharatesha
Vaibhava, by Ratnakara Varni, the court poet of the Odeyar (not Wodeyar of Mysore)
kings of Karkala in 1557 and thereabouts. Much of his description is based on
the conduct of the festival in Mysore
and south Karnataka.

A much earlier and more
elaborate description of the Jamboo Savari in Vijayanagar with Krishna Devaraya
leading the procession in all its splendor is by the Portuguese traveller Paes.

Friday, 4 October 2013

All of us known that Lalbagh
in Bangalore
was begun by Hyder Ali and developed by Tipu Sultan. We also know that it was subsequently
taken over by the British who raised it into one of the most important
botanical gardens in India.

Lalbagh is home to a number
of exotic tress, plants and shrubs. But
not many know that the buildings in Lalbagh too have a history of their own and
today, they stand as mute spectators to the vast throngs that visit he garden,
oblivious to the standing history of the botanical gardens.

Lalbagh is currently managed
by the Directorate of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka. The directorate operated
from a red building in front of the office of the Director of Horticulture,
Karnataka.

This building has a history
of its own. It was built in 1920 when Gustav Hermann Krumbiegal (1865-1956) was
Director of Horticulture. He had an
ambitious plan of building a horticulture college on the Lalbagh premises.

Krumbiegel, a German botanist
and garden designer, spent years dedicating his life and service to the
development of Lalbagh. He had also plans of constructing tree lined avenues in
Bangalore which
would host a variety of plants and shrubs.

Krumbiegel was born in Lohmen
near Dresden in Germany and he trained as a
horticulturist. In 1884, he worked in Schwerin and from 1885 to 1887 he worked as a landscape
gardener in Hamburg.
In 1888, he moved to England,
designing flower beds at the Hyde Park and joined the staff at the Royal
Botanical Gardens in Kew. He then came to India and in 1893 was the Curator of the
Botanical Garden in Princely Baroda. He then was with
the GovernmentBotanical Garden in Ooty.

It was in 1908 that the
reigning Wodeyar monarch, Krishnaraja Wodeyar, the ruler of Mysore, sought his services and persuaded him
to succeed John Cameron as economic botanist and superintendent of Lalbagh.

Krumbiegel was solely
responsible for introducing numerous plants in Lalbagh. He was also closely associated
with the Mysore Horticultural Society that was started in 1912. Although a keen
botanist, he was also a well-known architect. Noting his expertise, the then Dewan of
Mysore appointed him as an architectural consultant despite protests from the
British Resident in Mysore.
During the Second World War, Germans in India
were declared as enemies and Krumbiegel was along with other Germans kept in an
internment camp in Bangalore.

His plan of starting a
horticulture college was first shot down by the British and then by the
Karnataka Government. Krumbeigal had conceived the red structure as part of the
college.

He wanted the college in
Lalbagh as he thought such an institution could provide both students and researchers
with materials on hand and at short notice. He also saw that the college could
become one of its kind in the world as it would be located amidst rare plants,
shrubs, trees and seeds.

Since Lalbagh was a botanical
garden, he thought a college on horticulture would be ideal. He even prepared
designs for the college but since the plan was never accepted, it was destroyed.

Today, it is this very red
structure that serves as the office for the Director of Horticulture.

The College
of Horticulture did come and it was
the first in India
but it was not on Lalbagh.

By the way, horticulture
accounts for 40 per cent of Karnataka’s income that is generated from the combined
agriculture sector. This state also boasts of the largest area under flower
crop cultivation and ranks third in the production of the same across India. In
addition, Karnataka is the largest producer of spices, aromatic and medicinal
crops.

Karnataka was the first state
to have a horticulture department in India and that it was established
in 1963.

Coming back to Krumbeigal, he
served Karnataka for 25 years and retired in the year 1932. After his
retirement, he settled at Bangalore and worked
as the Landscape Advisor to the state of Mysore,
till his death in 1956.

Thursday, 3 October 2013

Well, after years of talks, hundreds
of seminars, innumerable workshops and also years of hibernation and inertia, things are seeming to move towards providing drinking
water supply to Bangalore.
And this is to augment the Cauvery water supply that Bangalore receives every day.

Bangalore has always been a water scare city and right from its
inception, it has faced problems of water supply. But it is only recently that
the water scarcity has assumed herculean proportions and several areas have had
to go without water.

The Bangalore Water Supply
and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), which looks after the water supply to Bangalore,
has been trying for several years to locate alternate water sources to fulfill
the thirst of Bangaloreans. It has found the Cauvery inadequate to meet the
water needs and there has been several surveys and technical reports on
augmenting the water supply.

A few days ago, an expert
committee constituted by the BWSSB, formed in 2010 to identify both long and
short term solutions to the growing water demand in the City, has now
identified Linganmakki as an alternate and more than adequate source to fulfill
the water needs of Bangalore.

This panel was constituted by
the then BJP Government and it consists of nine members. The report of the panel
has not so far been made public though it is ready.
The report of the nine-member panel has zeroed in on Linganmakki in Sagar taluk
of Shimoga district as Bangalore’s
answer for the much searched alternative.
Linganamakki is the one of the biggest reservoirs in Karnataka and it has a
capacity to store151 tmc (thousand million cubic) feet of water with an annual
inflow of 181 tmc.
This is just six kilometers away from the world famous JogFalls
and it is built across the Sharavati river. It was constructed in 1954 and the dam has a
length of 2.4 kms.

The dam was initially designed
to impound 4368 million cubic meter of water in an area of around 300 km²,
submerging 50.62 km² of wetland and 7 km² of dry land, with the
remaining being forest land and wasteland.

The dam has a height of 1,819
feet (554 m) and it mainly receives water from the Chakra and Savahaklu reservoirs,
which are linked to it through a canal.

The water from the Linganamakki
flows to Talakalale Balancing Reservoir through a trapezoidal canal with a
discharge capacity of 175.56 m³/s. The length of this channel is about 4318.40
metres with a submersion of 7.77 km². It has a catchment area of about
46.60 km².

Behind the dam is a large
reservoir. The discharge from the dam can be quite heavy. When the dam's sluice gates
are closed upstream from JogFalls, it is possible to
walk down into the fall's ravine.

The committee has suggested laying
of pipelines for about 100 km from
Linganamakki to Yagachi dam in Hassan district. These pipelines could easily draw
50 tmc feet of water. A problem here is that the pipelines would have to be routed
through forests and environmentalists may not take kindly to this.

Once the water reaches Yagachi
dam, water will flow through gravity for nearly 50 km to reach Bangalore city. The BWSSB says this water can
not only be supplied to Bangalore
but also to neighbouring Kolar, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur and
Chitradurga.

Apart from this project, the
BWSSB committee has also proposed a reservoir at Mekedaatu in Kanakapura taluk
of Ramanagara district. It says this water can be used for irrigation and
agriculture purposes. However, this is unlikely to be a smooth issue as Tamil
Nadu has already voiced its opposition to any water retention project on the
Cauvery.

The committee has also said that
water can be drawn from Lakshmanateertha river to Krishna Raja Sagar (KRS) dam near
Mysore in Mandya district which would store the water
and later release it to Bangalore.
This too is unlikely to be easy as Tamil Nadu would fight for what its
perceives its rightful share of impounded water in the KRS.
It would, therefore, appear that the best alternate sources if Linganmakki. The
committee itself has estimated that the
project cost would be in the range of Rs 100 crores and that it can be
completed in three years.

The committee has also
proposed that more water be drawn from the Cauvery basin, within the framework
of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal award.
Apart from these recommendations, the committee has also come up with measures
to plug leakages in Bangalore,
reduce unaccounted water, enforce dual pipeline system and replace old pipes.

As of now, the water wastage
in Bangalore is
as high as 48 per cent and the committee has said urgent steps are needed to
bring it down to 16 per cent or less.